Sunday, September 2, 2007

9/2 - Great Day....was this a "cold spell"??

I can't remember a single day this summer so far as pleasant as today was. Down right "chilly", I'd say. No, it wasn't cold at all, but so dang nice. It just made me feel really good.

See what a completely overcast day, light winds and a weather system of some sort over our neighbors in Georgia can do? Made for one hell of a nice day. Not to mention I had some really good company out there with me.

Thursday, when I went on my long journey north, far far away from the Mayport area to do some exploring and enjoy the serenity. I came back down the Intra-coastal water way and stopped by the ship yard at Sisters creek. In hopes of sending a float rigged with a big fat local river cricket (shrimp) up under the pier at the shipyard, so to catch some Trout. But the current wasn't running right and all I caught was more Jacks. And up on the pier walks Jason, a Captain of a 150 yacht that's up on the dry dock getting some work done. He asked how things were going and asked me what I've been catching. To make a long story short, he gave me a call and brought two crew members.......(Boy, I'm bad with names. Drew and Phil???? If I don't write names down I quickly forget)

I told him I had Sunday open, so he reserved Sunday at 0630 hrs, at the dock for a river charter.

He mentioned he'd like to Redbass and Trout fish. Perfect because that's what I like to do too.

We talked Tarpon, but with the chances of getting slim to no chum, or at least not enough to do the job. We settled on a river trip.

Armed with 120 live shrimp, and a dozen mullet we left the dock and headed west, then a bit south on the river.

We picked and poked (that's what I call it when we have to hunt up a good spot) But we ended up only fishing 3 spots all day. Catching some Trout, and battling through the too many Mangrove snapper bites as usual.

A big fish probably a large Drum was lost to the anchor line. Wish we could have seen that one. We had to settle for perfect eating size Black Drum rather than Redbass, because they were there and willing.

We went through all 120 shrimp, had maybe a 1/2 dozen or more die, that's all. Which is next to nothing compared to the fatalities I have been getting, because of the hot sun and hot water.

And on the last shrimp of the day, Jason hooked a big strong fish. Acted like a Redbass, and a big one......and even fooled me when it came up and was a about a 7 pound Jack Crevalle.

One of the guys caught a big Mangrove Snapper from under a dock....big figuratively speaking, about 15". Most are 3-4" and are nothing but bait stealers, which is their trade while growing up in the river, before heading offshore. The fella's caught about a dozen Trout, and keeping the solid 15" or better ones. Small Grouper, Ladyfish, Jacks, Needlefish, Pinfish, and a Skate. That's why I take 10 dozen live shrimp for 3 guys!! In December, all I'll need is 6 dozen because all the bait stealers will vacate the river. But the action was relatively constant.

And they went away with a nice big bag of fillets, which is number one in my book. I want to get plenty of "eaters", if I can.

While cleaning fish at the dock, I quickly realized what a zoo it was out there today. People everywhere. But since we started early and finished up early, and went far far away. We never had to deal with the holiday boat traffic.

If "labor day" is the un-official end to summer. I'm going to pay close attention to see if this applies here. Will the weekends get a bit less crowded, or will it stay the same. I always say when the official start of Football season begins is when crowds thin out....and that's just around the corner too.